Scribner Seminar ProgramCourse Description

On the Stage and in your Face: American Political and Activist Theater

Instructor(s): Carolyn Anderson, Theater

Students explore American political and activist theater in the 1930s, 1960s, and
1990s from the perspectives of history and performance. Students will analyze major
events and issues along with the various play texts and performance styles and strategies
that emerged to move social and political agendas forward. Through close readings
of historical documents, essays on performance theory, and viewing videos of performances,
students will analyze the concepts of activism as performance and performance as activism.
At the end of the semester, students will conceptualize, construct, and perform a
short activist theater piece.